It’s understandable that Gov. Tom Corbett met news of Speaker Sam Smith’s retirement from the state House of Representatives with trepidation Tuesday.

Having been consistently branded the most vulnerable incumbent governor in America, Corbett would have been looking to Smith – the man credited with rescuing the governor’s once-expired transportation plan – to provide a much-needed 2014 budget assist.

When Smith, R-Jefferson County, told Corbett Tuesday of his year-end retirement, he said the governor was “disappointed and a little bit of surprised,” but encouraged the speaker to remain engaged “at least through the June period.”

The Republican governor’s own statement on Smith’s retirement was an acknowledgement that he needs the speaker for the critical budget negotiations prior to his November re-election.

“Over these next several months, I am confident that [Smith] will continue his strong leadership and work ethic to ensure that the important work before us is complete,” Corbett said.

But instead of being a harbinger of Corbett campaign doom, Smith’s retirement could be a saving grace for the governor’s 2014 legislative agenda – and by inference his re-election prospects.

“I really think [Smith] will want to go out on the highest note,” said former state Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer. “He’ll want to get a budget passed [the Republican-controlled legislature and Corbett] can feel comfortable with, and give the governor every opportunity to be successful in his re-election.”

Phil English, a Republican lobbyist and former Erie congressman, speculated that Smith’s impending exit would provoke an unanticipated fringe benefit for Corbett from the House Republicans already jockeying for advancement.

“This will create some appetite for those who are looking to move up … to play an active, and positive role in advancing the Republican agenda and the Republican campaign,” English said.

But Smith’s novel involvement also produced a reaction often found on the report cards of grade school slackers: extremely effective – when he applies himself.

For most of his leadership tenure, Smith has deferred the heavy legislative lifting to House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, preferring instead – capitol observers say – to revel in the stately accouterments of the office.

English, like many Smith admirers, has had to reconcile that perceived shortcoming.

“The way I’ve settled it in my own mind is that Sam Smith has a personal center that allows him to step back as speaker, taking a less prominent role, but giving key members of his conference the incentive to essentially develop and expend their own political capital,” he said.

“This is a guy who’s comfortable in his own skin, doesn’t have a lot to prove, and is comfortable doing a lot of heavy lifting behind the scenes,” English added. “In that role he’s made a significant contribution to the House.”

By Smith’s own admission, that nonchalant approach nearly saw him beaten out of his beloved seat by an unheralded 2012 primary challenge from the right.

“The extent of my campaign was probably filing my petitions,” Smith said Tuesday. “I arguably committed a cardinal sin of electioneering and that is taking things for granted.”

In the aftermath of that close call, capitol corridor speculation has been buzzing that the speaker has too much ground to make up to win re-election, and rather than knuckle down to defend his seat, will instead walk away.

“He doesn’t have a core that drives him,” said one former Republican lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Plus it’s so late in the game that anything [Smith and Corbett] do will be seen as a political ploy to get the governor re-elected.”

However Bob Guzzardi, Corbett’s long shot conservative GOP primary challenger, derided Smith Tuesday as “an effective partner to the governor … an obstacle to a less spending, less debt and lower taxes agenda … [and] the governor's collaborator in the expansion of government cost.”

“After Tom Corbett revealed a 2014-2015 gimmick-based budget that Sam Smith would be responsible for ushering through the legislature, the speaker must have realized that his association with the governor would make it too difficult to win re-election,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesman Marc Eisenstein.

Jubelirer, Smith’s former partisan brother from a different chamber mother, points to the outgoing speaker’s own declaration that he “wasn’t enjoying the job.”

After nearly three decades in office, Smith may be looking at the political landscape and figure it’s better to exit the statehouse with his head up, instead of seeing his career put out feet first.

“It’s going to be a tough year for re-election for the governor, and he needs the speaker to do a lot of heavy lifting,” Jubelirer said. “It very well may be that Sam doesn’t have the enthusiasm, or the passion to do what it takes.”

Corbett will be praying that Smith has the stomach for one last epic budget battle, but the only person who knows if there is enough fire left in his belly is the speaker himself.

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